DX/SWL/MEDIA PROGRAMS
Updated October 4:
http://www.worldofradio.com/dxpgms.html
** CUBA. 6000, Oct 3 at 0604, again tonight, S9 of dead air from RHC English; likewise silence on the //s: 6060 & 6100 S9+20, 6165 S9+10; anyhow despite being useless, they amount to the SSOB, as TN-USA frequencies 5830 and 5935 are propped way down. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 6000, Oct 4 at 0531, RHC English frequencies differ markedly from other nights: this one is JBM at S9+10; 6100 likewise but S7; 6165 undermodulated but sufficient at S9+20; 6060 also S9+20 with usual loud modulation; 5040 is also on before 0600, now S9+20 but somewhat distorted modulation. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA. 11980, Oct 4 at 0043, RHC Spanish leapfrog of 11700 over 11840 another 140 kHz beyond achieves S9 on the meter and enough audio to // it, but suffers from overmodulation splatter out of another RHC transmitter, the fundamental on 12000. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** CUBA [and non]. 13740, Oct 3 at 1400, dead air from China Plus relay transmitter alone: RHC Spanish has managed to turn off its transmitter today! But CRI modulation does not start up until 1401:20, initially low, then building up but never reaching 100%.
The ChiCom but American-accented newscaster (and/or his writer/censor) disdains regular verbs; instead everything is just ``-ing, -ing`` as they are trying to impose a sense of current motion or activity, rather than ``is -ing``, ``was -ing`` or simply ``-ed`` past tense as all news really is by the time it`s broadcast on the way to becoming olds.
Many others are guilty of this ing-ing, notably David Muir on ABC`s `World News Tonight` [sic: in many timezones, especially summer, it runs during full daytime, first feed at 2230 UT], which is a factor in what makes him #3 for me, or worse, not #1 as ABC ratings claim (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GREECE. 9420, Oct 4 at 0041, ERT, home of great Greek music, is now playing Dylan ``Times, they are a-changin```. VOG does surprise us at times with eclectic music choices; only fair, S4-S7 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** GUATEMALA [non]. 4055: Thu Oct 4 at 0531 UT, Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid sent this notice from Radio Verdad:
``See it in Spanish at the end. Véalo en Español al final.
---------
Very Important Notice:
Transworld Radio Truth (Radio Verdad) will be transmitting on test transmission tomorrow Thursday afternoon from 13:00 through 16:00 hours Guatemala time (19:00-21:00 hours GMT or UTC). [sic]
The transmissions will be addressed to Africa, Europe (Spain, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany), China, and other countries.
Our transmissions are via satelite, but you will pick up our signal on short wave, on 4055 Khz. There are many repeating short wave antennas over the world. It is a new and wondrous invention.
We are not transmitting tomorrow to America, México, the Caribean, Central America and South America yet. We still have some difficulties with the equipment for this area, which we are on the effort to solve soon. We plan to transmit to the whole world soon afterwards. These are test transmissions. If we succeed fully, we plan to move all the equipment to Chiquimula, for permanente transmissions.
We plead DX'ers, amateur radio men and other listeners to report our test transmissions on audio recordings. This will help to improve our Transworld Radio Truth future transmissions.
The project has taken us about three years, due to the many technical and legal dificulties, which we have overcome. Praise God.
Please spread the news. May God bless you.
Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, General Manager and Director
-------------------------------------
Spanish - Español
Noticia muy Importante:
Radio Verdad Transmundial estará transmitiendo con transmisiones de prueba mañana jueves desde las 13:00 hasta las 16:00 horas, hora de Guatemala (19:00-21:00 horas GMT o UTC). [sic]
Las transmisiones se dirigirán a África, Europa (España, Bélgica, Holanda, Francia, Alemania), China y otros países.
Nuestras transmisiones son vía satélite, pero se sintonizará nuestra señal por onda corta, en 4055 Khz. Hay muchas antenas repetidoras de onda corta en todo el mundo. Es un nuevo y novedoso invento.
No estamos transmitiendo mañana hacia América, México, El Caribe, Centro América y Sud América todavía. Aún tenemos algunas dificultades con el equipo para dicha área, y estamos en el esfuerzo de resolverlas pronto. Esperamos transmitir hacia todo el mundo luego después. Éstas son transmisiones de prueba. Si logramos todo el buen éxito deseado, planificamos trasladar todo el equipo a Chiquimula, para las transmisiones permanentes.
Suplicamos a los Diexistas, Radio Aficionados, y otros oyentes, que nos reporten nuestras transmisiones de prueba con grabaciones de audio. Esto nos ayudará a mejorar nuestras transmisiones de Radio Verdad Transmundial.
El proyecto nos ha llevado como tres años, debido a los muchos problemas técnicos y legales que hemos tenido que vencer. Gracias a Dios.
Por favor divulgue esta información. Que Dios les bendiga.
Dr. Édgar Amílcar Madrid, Director y Gerente General, Radio Verdad``
At 1507 UT Oct 4, I duly posted the above to the WOR iog and HCDX, with this introduxion: ``Here we go again. I shall be very surprised if anyone hears anything anywhere on 4055 during this time period, but give it a try. Prove me wrong. Note discrepancy in timespan, in both language versions, 3 hours in local time, 2 hours in UT. Dr M has never explained exactly how this can be accomplished. And has not provided any contact info to the agency allegedly providing this. Are there now legal or mini-power 4055 transmitters in all these countries?``
So I listened to UTwente SDR tuned to 4055 at 2005-2015, and spot chex later in the hour, UT Oct 4, getting: ``nothing but some kind of ute noise blob on the plus side of 4055``.
Other monitors using own or remote receivers also reported negative results: Bill Bingham, RSA; Richard Langley, NB; Anker Petersen, Denmark; Manuel Méndez, Spain, who then got a reply from Dr M: "Gracias por su reporte desde España. Estoy investigando si realmenteestamos en el aire o no"; and Jorge Freitas, Brasil, who adds, ``With all due respect to Mr. Edgar, this email has no logic and support. I agree with Glenn``.
If Dr M. does receive any seemingly positive reports of this from monitors unknown to us, he should seriously doubt their credibility; they could be ringers (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** KUWAIT [and non]. 15105-15110-15115, Oct 4 at 1325, weak DRM noise at S2-S3, as RK is scheduled to end just now, 0945-1325, 250 kW, 310 degrees in Arabic USward. Mixed with JBA AM carrier, as 15110 is also in use by ChiCom jamming and VOA Chinese via Thailand, 250 kW at 14 degrees also USward (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** OKLAHOMA [and non]. 890, October 3 at 1821 UT, KTLR OKC is the first station I hear running the much-publicized nationwide EAS test (eclipsed by text version 2 minutes earlier I am not equipped to receive). It`s an impossible task to evaluate the 1-minute EAS, without recording the entire local AM and/or FM bands for later study as if they were DX --- did anybody do this?
As zero-minute approached, I was set to scan up MW ASAP starting at 550. After KTLR, many others were heard, but nothing seemed to be synchronized. One station still playing music while others EASed, was 1130, KLEY Wellington KS, but moving on, I don`t know whether they did run it earlier, later, or never. At least they long ago solved the transmission breakup/noise pulsing which plagued KLEY most of the first half of this year.
Notably, 930, WKY OKC ran a Spanish version of the EAS announcement circa 1822 UT. At least I did not hear any horrible echoes or distortions as has happened previously, due to too-lengthy relay chains! (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A [and non]. WORLD OF RADIO 1950 monitoring: confirmed Tuesday October 2 at 2056, the 2030 on WRMI 7780, JBA (and not on 5950, and not on either at 2130 despite outdated System D online schedule).
Also confirmed Wednesday October 3 at 2100 on WRMI 9955 (after a pentaminute of IS & ID loop), S9 --- but pulse jamming also starts underneath at exactly same time --- tnx a lot, Arnie! Current WRMI 9955 System B sked, FWIW, shows Spanish at 2100 only on Mon & Fri, both DX, not counter-revolutionary programs.
WOR 1950 on WBCQ 7490v simultaneously from 2100 Wed Oct 3 and almost synchronized, WRMI no longer delayed a semiminute. WBCQ reads S9, but more fading, to S5, and somewhat undermodulated by comparison. Next:
[there is a long dry spell as I cannot get any US SW station to air WOR on Thu or Fri; I asked WBCQ if they could commit to any one time a week on 9330, but no reply] Next:
0629 UT Saturday HLR 6190-CUSB Germany to WSW [off last 2 weeks]
1231 UT Saturday WINB 9265V via Unique Radio to WSW
1431 UT Saturday HLR 6190-CUSB Germany to WSW [off last 2 weeks]
1930vUT Saturday WA0RCR 1860-AM non-direxional
0300vUT Sunday WA0RCR 1860-AM non-direxional [nominal 0315-]
1030 UT Sunday HLR 9485-CUSB Germany to WSW [off last 2 weeks]
2130 UT Sunday WRMI 7780 to NE, 9955 to SSE
0300vUT Monday WBCQ 5130v Area 51 to WSW
0330 UT Monday WRMI 9955 to SSE
Full schedule including AM, FM, webcasts, satellite:
http://www.worldofradio.com/radioskd.html
(Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
** U S A. 5950, UT Thu Oct 4 at 0053, WRMI in Spanish, but not // 7335 Radio Martí, as allegedly scheduled at 2300-0200 UT Wed-Thu. The idea is to cover baseball games for the rest of season in October, perhaps evading jammers, but I suppose exact timings of games vary widely depending on zone, other local factors; not to mention real durations. 2018 dates for World Series [sic; North American Sequence] are Oct 23 until 31 if necessary. But would/could RM/RMI pay for rights to broadcast those on whatever days of week? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)
This report despatched at 0120 UT October 5
